15 Months

Natalie just turned 15 months today. It is hard to believe she had her cochlear implant surgery 6 months ago. I decided to put her processors on the other day without the headband. She is getting quite a lot more hair in and she gets really hot and sweaty during the summer and plus, it is fun to style with a bow in it. The downside, is lots of wig tape to help keep them on. I think she looks cute either way.

Natalie seems to know and understand all our names in the family now. If we are sitting at the kitchen table and I ask where someone is, she is really good about turning and looking at them directly. This is always a good time for learning as she is sitting in her high chair in their at least 3 times a day. I have to find a lot of creative ways for learning and make the most of our time.

She also understands "up, up, up" and she walks (if not runs) directly to the stairs which are her favorite thing and as she is going up them, she will say "uh, uh, uh". She hasn't exactly said "up" yet, but she has gotten the "p" sound down. When we see a boat, she will say, "puh, puh, puh" for it, so I am sure "up" will come shortly.

New Things

It has been a while since I have posted anything. Just enjoying our summer I suppose. Natalie continues to make great progress. In the last few weeks she is more consistent with some sounds, comprehending more and more, and even saying some words:

Mama
Dada
Daddy
Hi (although this has only been heard just a few times)
Uh-oh (more like "uh-uh" but we have heard the "o" sound coming out more and more).

always has to be carrying around as many things as she possibly can

Some video clips:

A few things I have been focusing on with her are shoes and noses. She seems to know what they are. Generally if I ask "Where is Natalie's Shoes..." she would most often turn her head in the direction of the shoes. She doesn't exactly go and get them and bring them to me.

If I ask "Where is your Nose..." it may take her a few times to get that I am asking her to do something, show me, etc. She typically will pull at my nose or put her finger in my nose.. :)

She had an assessment a few weeks ago and her scores indicate she has better expressive language (verbal) than receptive language (comprehension), so we are going to try and focus more on naming things and saying what they are, and do less of making the sounds. (ie. so for Airplane, she knows what it says, she can make the "ahh" sound, so we will just call it an airplane and do less of the sound.)

She did score well considering she is only hearing for 4+ months. The testing just shows us where she is at in both receptive, comprehension and then combined.

A score of 100 is considered average, but you can go -15 or +15 points either way to be in the average range.

Receptive score: 81 (so about 4 points from being in the average range)
Expressive score: 101 (average)
Combine score: 90 (just below average but in the average range)

So if we continue to keep working hard, she should really be catching up with her peers very quickly. We are following: The Intervention Hieraarchy for Language and Vocabulary (4 steps)


1. Input
2. Comprehension
3. Imitation
4. Spontaneous use